Steam Input mistakes Flydigi Apex 4 controller for something incompatible

[Tyrian Mollusk]

ISSUE
Steam Client (beta and non-beta) mistakes a Flydigi Apex 4 controller for their Vader 3 controller, supports it incorrectly, and refuses to offer the user an option to manually set it up.

OS
Windows 11

STEPS
Connect Apex 4 controller in Dinput mode (in other modes the controller masquerades as standard Xbox or Switch controllers, with more limited features).

RESULTS
Steam Client reports a "Flydigi VADER3", with some buttons misassigned or outright missing, and core features unavailable, like the gyro.

EXPECTED
Steam Client either reports a supported Flydigi Apex 4 with at least all buttons and gyro functional (there's more that should be supported, but those are fundamental), or Steam Client reports an unknown controller and lets us set up and label its various inputs.

There should also be an option to manually reconfigure a controller regardless of what Steam thinks it is, so we aren't just stonewalled when Steam has the wrong controller and left waiting months for someone at Valve to care about getting it wrong.

One would also expect an unknown controller the user has setup (or a known one that needed to be manually reconfigured) to be submitted to Steam to improve its support library in the future.

ADDITIONAL
Apex 4 is a solid controller with some nice features, and Steam Input should not be ignoring it or forcing us to use knock-off versions of it through masquerading, none of which can access all the fundamental features like gyro and analog triggers. We should especially not be blocked on manually configuring a controller just because the Steam Client thinks it knows what to do. Your controller support is a long way from being that thorough, and even if it were, the user should be able to assert priority when that fits their needs.

[#Testing_Checkmark]

So how does it go?
and how can it recognize your controller as something not Xbox controller?

My apex 4 is always being recognized as xbox 360 controller which doesn't have gyro support at all. (there's no such option)

and the space station does offer gyro, but it kinda suck.
I wanna configure gyro in steam input. But there's just no such option

So how do you make it think it's a flydigi controller?


Steam beta?

[Tyrian Mollusk]

Originally posted by #CSGO_Checkmark:

My apex 4 is always being recognized as xbox 360 controller which doesn't have gyro support at all. (there's no such option)
and the space station does offer gyro, but it kinda suck.
I wanna configure gyro in steam input. But there's just no such option
So how do you make it think it's a flydigi controller?

Basically, there are three ways to use the controller, which you can switch between in the little on-controller menus (hold the home button, then dpad and A/B to navigate the menu, Connect is where you change controller modes).

In Xinput mode, it shows up as a generic Xbox controller, so you have analog triggers and no access to gyro aside from the controller software's built-in gyro-to-mouse, which yeah, is kind of a problem to try to work with.

In Switch mode, it shows up as a generic Switch controller, so you have a real gyro Steam Input can see, but the triggers are digital, so you can't use Steam Input for hair-trigger thresholds and such. This is what I've been using for gyro games, but it's obviously not ideal, especially since it's stuck with bluetooth for wireless instead of using the better dongle communication.

The third option, DirectInput mode, is where Steam Input ought to be able to see the real controller and everything it can do (if Flydigi's DirectInput driver works, at least), so it can handle both providing something generic Xinput games understand while using Steam Input for the rest, but instead it thinks it is a Vader 3 and kind of makes a mess of things.

There's also Steam's "extended" Xbox feature support driver, but I've no idea how that works or what a controller driver needs to do to get Steam to support it beyond the limited Xinput feature set. It would be great for Steam Input to do it's important job of supporting and enabling controller features, instead of just being a way to configure generic Xinput and Switch controllers, leaving us stuck with those two broken feature sets no matter how much controllers move forward, which they mostly don't exactly because we can't get proper support outside Xinput/Switch. Steam Input was pretty much our only hope for breaking this silly progress deadlock.

[mataleao]

I have the same ussue with Flydigi Apex 4. Any progress there?

[gsr_altezza]

Same with vader 4 pro